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In my previous post I announced a two-weekly rhythm in posting new chapters of "Far from the fjords". Starting in April, I haven't been able to hold that promise. The problem is the Thanksgiving chapter (the next one). About four months ago I got stuck writing it, mostly because I changed my mind several times on what I wanted to do with it (and I still might change my mind some more). In the meantime I have been working on other stories that aren't ready for publication yet, I even have half of the chapter AFTER the Thanksgiving episode, but at the moment I can't publish anything because the next part is taking way longer than it should.
So, just letting you know that I'm still alive, I haven't stopped writing, and the story is not gonna be discontinued, but you will need to be patient.
Just to give faithful readers an idea of what to expect (not about the contents of the story, I'm keeping that a secret): So far there are 15 chapters finished, which means there are 10 more chapters coming. After that, I can't be sure, since I'm currently on a break from the story in order to write something else. The plan is to post a new chapter every two weeks. Only if the "smut level" of the last chapter is pretty low, i'll post the next one after one week: I sympatize with the people who need their fix. A two week interval between two chapters feels long, but I'm hoping it will enable me to get back to the story in time (meaning before I run out of material to post).
For Far from the Fjords, my latest story, I deviated from the usual way I locate a story. Generally I try to avoid specific place names. This time, it felt unnatural to keep places nameless. I didn't consciously choose Baltimore as a location. The choice is rather based on needing a specific kind of neighborhood, and Sandtown-Winchester was the first I found that fit the bill. I try to have any specific details about the locations real - there's plenty of research going into Baltimore, a city where I've never been - but I hope that potential readers from Baltimore will forgive me any mistakes I make. A few wrongs are included deliberately, because I needed them for the story.
Tomorrow I'll post chapter 4.
Currently I'm working on a new story, that I'll start posting once I'm reasonably sure that I'll actually be able to finish it. But I ran into a practical question, so advice is welcome, either as a reader or a fellow writer. How important is consistency in chapter length?
As I have it now, the shortest chapter so far would contain two scenes, that count a mere 1300 words combined. The longest chapter so far isn't finished yet, but I'm at 2800 words at this point and expect it to reach at least 3500, if not 4000 words. That's just one scene and originally I had planned to add the next scene to that chapter as well, because it makes sense in the chronology of the story. So worst case one chapter could be three to four times as long as another. Is that something that would bother readers?
Let's be honest: I don't write stories, I write porn. Whatever plot there is to my stories, is usually the kind of plot we all know from porn scenes/movies. That's also why I'm usually having difficulties to wrap up a story in a satisfying way (at least to me).
Usually when I start posting a story, the writing is actually already finished. As in: if I wanted to, I could post all the chapters at once, but I chose to spread it out a little over time. I made an exception (merely out of a lack of patience) for "Dollars and desire". I was still in the middle of writing the concluding chapter, when I posted the first chapter to the story. I made the exception because I felt pretty sure that I'd be able to finish the last chapter I was still working on.
So what's the link between the first two paragraphs in this post? Because I'm not really writing stories, there's not much of a story arch. While working on the final chapter I had in mind, another idea popped up. A chapter I could insert earlier in the story. In a "story", maybe rather a "set up" centered around facials, it was a good idea, I only thought of it a little late.
When thinking of where in the story to place that new chapter, I realized that ideally it would be the new fourth chapter. Only, I had already posted the chapter that was to come after it. Again, as there isn't that much of a story arch, it could come after the "first time" chapter as well, which is now the plan. But that's why it's taking longer to publish the next chapter: unlike what I'm used to, this (probably shorter) chapter is still being written.
I hope this rambling made a little sense. But as I said in the beginning: I don't write stories (or coherent blog posts) so much as I'm writing porn.
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